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In the Uxbridge Gazette on 23rd November, Cllr Gardner wrote in to the letters page with a piece called ‘Remembrance and our town’s solidarity’. I reproduce the letter below –

I would like to thank PC Emma Reed and her Police colleagues for organising yet again an event in Hayes for the community that live in Hayes and to again prove to the narrow minded critics of Hayes that rather than be a fragmented town as is often claimed, we are in fact ‘in solidarity’.

The event was conducted on the frontage of the Social Centre in Botwell Lane with prayers said by some of the local clergy and a PCSO, the local faith centres were represented by members of their congregations – Christians,Muslims,Buddhists,Sikhs,atheists, all observed the two minute silence.

Over 100 people attended the event, some with their little children,in remembrance of those who have died and are still dying in wars all over the world, and of course with emphasis on those who are affected by wars, many of who live alongside us in the community that is Hayes. Something we all tend to forget.

Children from the local school attended and I am sure some have family members who know first hand the horrendous effect of war.

So again I would like to thank the local Police teams and Emma especially for their ability to make many of the cynics realise that people who live in Hayes are all part of one community and not just many diverse groups living in isolation.

Firstly, can I express my whole hearted agreement that we are all one community – indeed, I have said as much on leaflets we have put out across Hayes. My grandfather served in the Western Desert and Italy during World War 2 and fought alongside Australians, Sikhs and Gurkhas to rid us of the Nazi menace – brave men all.

But a number of things about her letter have caused me to write this reply.

The following is the first post from one of our new 2016 guest writers, Hilltop Watchman.

It is a tongue in cheek look at the problems surrounding Islamist extremism in France with a message for those who would appease terrorism. Any similarity to the situation in Israel and Gaza is purely intentional.

Following the operations in Paris by several lone wolf militants with mental problems, and the brutal and disproportionate responses by the French authorities, it is clear that it is French Islamophobia that has resulted in feelings of desperation within the Islamic community

Indeed French society is so apartheid, that Muslims now feel excluded in the No-Go, bainlieu concentration camps that surround Paris, a stain on Gallic society that hearkens back to the collaborative days under Nazi occupation.

It is clear that French colonialist oppression is creating a powder keg environment where young men in particular, who immigrated to France to immerse themselves in the cradle of European culture, see no hope for the future, their hopes and dreams so dashed, that militancy is their only outlet. Their disappointment can only be imagined.

The actions of the racist French Occupying Forces especially operations in the Parisian bainlieus, likewise in the “jungle” refugee camp that is surrounded by French settlements in Calais together with French settled hostility is another factor.

Like most of you, I was horrified by the events of last Friday – The massacre of tourists in Tunisia, the bombing of the Shia Mosque in Kuwait and the beheading of a worker at a chemical plant in France. It would appear that the Islamic State promise to paint the Holy month of Ramadan with blood was no idle boast as countries around the world were hit by grim acts of terror.

Yesterday morning, David Cameron gave a press conference where he once again sent out a defiant message that the free countries of the world will not give in to these acts of barbarism and that the terrorists will never win. Unfortunately, whilst our Prime Minister thinks he talks a good game, both his actions and part of his speech show just why this growing threat shows no signs of going away in the near future.

Tough on the causes of extremism?

Both David Cameron and Home Secretary Teresa May have said that they will crack down hard on the preachers of hate. However, what they say and what they do are two entirely different things.

The following is a response from UKIP Culture spokesman Peter Whittle to Bill Oddie’s comments about British families

UKIP Culture Spokesman Peter Whittle said: “Bill Oddie’s remarks this weekend, in which he described his shame at being British, and that the size of British families need ‘to be contained’ in the face of over population, were odious and misinformed.

“If they had been made about any other country or its people, he would almost certainly be facing the sack.

“The TV personality, whose salary as presenter of the BBC’s SpringWatch, is effectively paid by British taxpayers, talked of the British as being a ‘horrible race’.

“Such bigoted comments reveal a very distorted view and a complete ignorance of the facts. British families, like their counterparts in Europe, are on average small; indeed the indigenous populations of most European countries have been in steady decline for some time.

“In fact, the current and ongoing population boom in Britain is driven overwhelmingly by mass immigration.

“It might be easy to dismiss Mr Oddie’s remarks were in not for the fact that they are unfortunately typical of an attitude which has been unduly influential in British society for far too long. An unquestioning preference for mass immigration, a disdain for ordinary British people and a distaste for Britain itself, are knee-jerk prejudices all too often prevelant amongst those who shape our cultural landscape.

“We must challenge at every opportunity this kind of ill-informed, self-hating bigotry.”

Over the course of the last thirty years, England has seen vast change. Unprecedented levels of immigration have changed our society in many major cities from a predominantly white, caucasian and Christian society to one where people from many different ethnic groups, religions and backgrounds are present, and where social cohesion and interaction varies.

England has benefited in the past from sensible levels of immigration, where migrants have come here to build a new life and bring up their families as part of the established community – Growing up in the seventies in Hillingdon, we saw newcomers from the Indian subcontinent, West Indies and Ugandan Asians all settle here and assimilate in to our lifestyle whilst retaining their own cultural identities.

Part of the attraction of the UK, as relayed to me by friends from this generation, was the idea of tolerance, ‘British Fair Play’, the ability to better yourself through hard work and equality in our legal system. The Ugandan Asians in particular had suffered discrimination and persecution at the hands of the dictator, Idi Amin, and thrived in an atmosphere where everyone was given equal opportunity and respect under the law.

Forty years on, their grandchildren are now facing a situation that would have seemed alien to those settling in England in the 1970’s.

The following post is the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily represent the views of the UK Independence party (UKIP)

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they attack you…..Then you win – Mahatma Gandhi

This has to be one of my all time favourite quotes from an iconic historical figure – Over the last 15 years it could pretty much sum up the rise of UKIP and also the realisation amongst the English people that those who claim to represent us at Westminster live in their own little world and only come out to talk to us at election time to keep their place on the gravy train.

Over the course of the last few months, the UKIP ‘surge’ has shown no signs of dying down despite the lack of major elections to fuel the anti-government ‘protest vote’ that the old establishment parties would have you believe is behind the healthy position of the party in the polls. The reality is that the UKIP stance on such concerns as mass uncontrolled immigration, rising energy prices, the EU, education and law & order fit in with the concerns of the public, a public who have been ignored as an inconvenience by those in power who believe that they know better.

The Gandhi scenario has been played out in England since Blair and ‘New Labour’ came to power in the late nineties – The people were ignored in the first rushes of ‘Cool Brittania’, with UKIP under the radar before our first MEP’s were elected on an anti-EU ticket in 1999.

Then came the ‘ridicule’ era – Any member of the public was branded as out of touch and a ‘Little Englander’ if they opposed the EU and the opening of our borders to all comers, with UKIP branded ‘gadflies, loonies and closet racists’ by the old Lib-Lab-Con triumvirate for expressing views that were in line with a large section of our society.

When the ridicule didn’t work, the public paid the price for their scepticism about the benefits of mass uncontrolled immigration by being attacked as ‘racists’ and ‘xenophobes’ by the government and compliant media – Who can forget the moment during the 2010 general election when Rochdale resident Gillian Duffy expressed her concerns to then PM Gordon Brown about mass immigration to be branded a ‘bigoted woman’ in an unguarded moment over a still live microphone?

With UKIP raising the immigration issue, the establishment turned their attacks on the only major political party campaigning on the real problems of lack of infrastructure, housing shortages and overloading of the NHS – But as the smears mount, so does party popularity as many realise that our critics are playing the man and not the ball.

Cranking up the rhetoric

Party leader Nigel Farage (left) has led from the front, and as such has had to deal with some fierce attacks as he has been singled out for special attention.

The BBC Question Time of 7th November saw a particularly spiteful attack from government minister Anna Soubry, assisted by Labour’s Emily Thornberry.

Despite Ms Soubry showing her lack of knowledge of her own government brief (a defence minister who doesn’t know that Navy support ships are currently being built in Korea whilst shipyards in Portsmouth are being closed down), she attacked UKIP as being a party to ‘scaremonger’ and ‘turn to the stranger and blame them’ during the economic downturn. This attack was even more ridiculous when you consider that just weeks previously, her party in government had put ad vans on the streets of London telling illegal immigrants to ‘go home or face arrest’ and sent text messages to people asking them if they should be in the country! ‘Operation Vaken’, as this was christened, cost the taxpayer thousands and resulted in just 11 people turning themselves in according to a report in The Metro newspaper on 1st November.

Ms Soubry faced a barrage of criticism from the public after this appearance, and further showed the lack of coherent answers to the questions posed when making a childish comment about Mr Farage’s sexual preferences on The Marr Show last week in an attempt to be funny.

The week following the Question Time episode , the inappropriately named ‘Hope not Hate’ organisation attacked UKIP Thurrock for laying wreaths to the fallen on Remembrance Sunday with a party logo on them. Whilst my personal opinion is that no political logo’s are appropriate from any party on this day, The Royal British Legion supplied them and were happy to do so. Interestingly enough, the other parties have been placing wreaths with their logo’s on supplied from the same source for years and HNH have said nothing – Considering the support from politicians in certain of the old 3 parties for organisations that have killed both English civilians and British servicemen on home soil, their silence in the preceding years is deafening.

Most recently, we have seen UKIP member and former Conservative party candidate Victoria Ayling subjected to sustained attack from The Mail. Their front page on 7th December read ‘Send them all back home’ and was backed up with an edited video where Ms Ayling had said she would do so but ‘can’t really say that, can I?’ Unfortunately for The Mail and whichever terrified Tory spin doctor put them up to this story, there were a few inaccuracies –

1 – The video was edited to take out the part where Ms Ayling was discussing ‘illegal immigrants’ – It is actually government policy as could be seen from the aforementioned vans for illegal immigrants to be removed, so she was stating that those who break the law should be sent back to their country of origin – Not unreasonable?

2 – The video was recorded in 2008 – Ms Ayling was a member of the Conservatives at the time, and subsequently stood as a candidate for MP in the 2010 general election. If this was such a big story, why was it not broken when she was with her previous party?

3 – She was referred to as a ‘Farage Filly’ and key ally of the UKIP party leader based on having a photo taken at conference – Many of the UKIP council candidates in 2013 had their photo’s taken with Mr Farage as part of the campaigning, that doesn’t make them a ‘key ally’. If a Labour council candidate is pictured shaking hands with Ed Miliband, does that make them a ‘key ally’ of the Labour leader?

Breathtaking hypocrisy

Whilst these concerted attacks have been carried out, the hypocrisy from the establishment parties and their allied organisations has been astounding.

With the opening of UK borders to all Romanian and Bulgarian citizens on 1st January, Prime Minister David Cameron has tried to rush through legislation at the eleventh hour to restrict benefits to citizens of these countries for 3 months after entry. He knows full well that this will be challenged by the EU as a breach of the rules – Indeed, the UK is currently being taken to court by the EU for not giving equal benefits to European migrants in relation to our own citizens. He also knows that we can’t control our own borders whilst we are a member of the European Union, but is trying to show a tough side to head off the threat at the ballot box posed by UKIP – Remember his triumphant return from Brussels at the end of 2012 where he claimed to have stopped an increase in the money paid by our taxpayers in to EU coffers? If you check the figures, a year down the line and we pay more than ever, just via a slightly different route.

It is also interesting to note that Bulgaria was sponsored as a full member state of the EU by none other than Conservative MEP’s led by Geoffrey Van Orden (Or Uncle Bulgaria, as UKIP MEP’s refer to him) – So you could say that the situation we find ourselves in with open borders to Bulgaria were actually triggered by the people who claim to be trying to defuse the situation! Of course, they have been aware of the relaxation of border controls since coming in to power in 2010 – So why such a late response? It couldn’t have anything to do with trying to head off UKIP at the polls, surely?

Then we have the reaction of other leading party figures to newspaper revelations of disharmony in communities caused by mass, uncontrolled immigration.

Former Labour Home secretary and Sheffield MP David Blunkett has predicted riots in his constituency unless Roma migrants integrate in to local society, with fellow Sheffield MP and Lib-Dem deputy PM Nick Clegg chiming in and saying that the Roma ‘need to play by the rules’ and have ‘a lack of respect’. Labour grandee Jack Straw has also chipped in to state that Labour ‘made mistakes’ on immigration when he was a member of the government.

Could you imagine the storms of protest from the establishment if Nigel Farage had said something similar? Yet two former Labour cabinet ministers, who oversaw the mass immigration that has led to the issues they talk of, now make comments that go far further than UKIP’s principled stand against open borders which is based around numbers and infrastructure pressure, not nationality.

The Betrayal of an English Generation

Then we had the spectacle of David Cameron at the end of last year talking down our youngsters in an attempt to justify the EU migration that he is now so drastically backpedalling on.

During an Apprentice event on 29th October, reported on by The Daily Express, he spoke of factories being half full of Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians because ‘our kids are not up to it’. He followed on in this vein on 13th November, when he was reported by The Telegraph as having stated that young working class people have ‘low aspirations’. This kind of outrageous pigeon holing of English youth would be classed as racist if levelled against any other ethnic grouping in our country – Yet Cameron has had the nerve to refer to UKIP members in the past as ‘closet racists’.

For a Prime Minister to talk down a whole generation of our youth who have been betrayed and denied a proper education by both his government and the previous Labour one is an abomination – To use that betrayal then as an excuse for recruitment of low skilled factory workers from abroad whilst those same youngsters are subjected to zero hours contracts or unemployment is a dereliction of duty on an epic scale.

Smear by association

With a definite lack of policy issues to attack UKIP on, the establishment parties have now turned to ‘smear by association’.

Following on from the 7th December headline, Vicky Ayling was further attacked by the Mail who then claimed that she had a background with the ‘far right’ National Front. This line of attack was based on her attending some meetings when she was at university and studying law as part of a thesis she was writing – A thesis that meant she attended various meetings across the political spectrum.

Yet the Mail printed nothing about these accusations when she was a Conservative candidate, and also failed to notice the following story from the local press in Rossendale and Darwen

Yes, Nick Holt was a former BNP member and candidate who was apparently asked to stand by the Conservatives for Darwen Town Council in 2009 – Not someone who attended a meeting as a student for research, a full blown BNP member who had stood for them before in elections.

But it is not just the Tories who have recruited from the ranks of the BNP. Meet Trevor Maxfield (Pictured) – He is the executive member for leisure and culture on Darwen council and is a sitting Labour councillor. Yet he was previously an organiser and member of the BNP, and also joined the white supremacist ‘England First’ party before joining Labour.

When questioned about his appointment by the local press, his fellow Labour councillor Dave Smith said ‘To be fair to Trevor, he’s quite a good bloke – I think his BNP stuff is in the past”

Tory council leader Mike Lee was also quoted as saying he had ‘never heard him say anything that would equate to a BNP comment’

So there you have it – Attend a meeting as a student thirty years ago if you are in UKIP and it is a press headline, but be an active member of the BNP and then join the establishment and your sins are absolved and you have seen the error of your ways.

Funnily enough, it would be impossible for either Mr Holt or Mr Maxfield to join UKIP as former BNP members are barred from the party – Not something that the establishment like you to know as it doesn’t fit their narrative.

When Mandrake is more ‘half-baked’

The Telegraph runs a popular political gossip column called Mandrake – In late November, I received a call from a UKIP colleague to tell me that there was a story about me in that day’s edition entitled, “How Nigel Farage’s UKIP chairman marched with the English Defence League’. This came as a bit of a surprise, as I had not been contacted by the press for comment before they ran the story – The Guardian had been on to this months before, and after talking with me didn’t bother to run what they called a ‘non-story’.

Author Tim Walker stated, “UKIP’s Chairman in Uxbridge, West London, is Cliff Dixon, who admitted taking part in a march held by the far right English Defence League in East London. Dixon posed for photographs on the march in 2011 with Kevin Carroll, the co-founder of the EDL”

The photograph that Mr Walker alludes to was taken outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, not in East London. Nor was there a march – It was a remembrance ceremony that was attended by many high profile politicians, members of the Royal Family and the families of the dead.

Finally, I was there in my role at the time of London Vice Chairman of the English Democrats political party prior to joining UKIP – I was stood with a group of activists from the March for England movement, whose flag I was photographed next to. Mr Carroll moved in front of the flag with a wreath and can be seen in one of the pictures. Also stood just to one side of us were activists from Muslims for Peace, who were there to oppose Islamist extremists led by Anjem Choudary who were mocking the victims families, as reported on by…..The Daily Telegraph (Link below)

So Mr Walker – Are you suggesting that this EDL march I was photographed on was also attended by Prince Charles and David Cameron?

Yet more attempts at ‘smear by association’ – In this case, ignoring the far bigger story of Islamists being allowed to disrupt a remembrance ceremony in the heart of London with a Police escort as can be seen in pictures I took that day. (Below)

Again, it also begs the question as to why the press give coverage to, and completely misrepresent, a story about a minor UKIP official but have ignored the presence of Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn at the annual Al Quds parade in London which is supported by The Iranian Government and features homophobia, anti-Semitism and calls for death to the West?

Here is a video of his speech to the crowd in 2012 – You can just see the banner behind him which carries the image of Malcolm X

What you don’t see in the video are the battle flags of proscribed organisations such as Hamas and Hisbollah, nor the placards carried by children urging violence which are now an annual feature (see pictures below)

How does this square with the calls for peace from the Labour MP, and why are the press and Police so shy of reporting real sectarian and racial hatred on the streets of our Capital city? Indeed, I have put official complaints in about breaches of the public order act committed on these marches for the last 3 years to The Metropolitan Police, and have written to my local MP and Mr Corbyn’s party leader, Ed Miliband, about it. My only reply has been an email from the Police saying they are sorry I have been a victim of crime!

If all else fails – Fabricate some evidence

I mentioned earlier the inappropriately named ‘Hope Not Hate’ organisation, a group that claims to fight racism and extremism.

They have recently set up a special section on their website entitled ‘Purple Rain’ to ‘put UKIP under the microscope’.

It begs the question – Why? UKIP have proscribed membership to extremist groups, and have members from all differing backgrounds, races and religions in the party. Indeed, UKIP policies are based on a meritocracy where everybody is given equal chances in life and immigration is judged on a points system irrespective of where you are from – If they are really out to clamp down on discrimination, then the Lib-Lab-Con with their migration policies that discriminate against those from outside of the EU would be a good place to start, surely?

A dig around on their site may give some clues when you look at organisations that back and partially fund Hope Not Hate – Trade Union leaders such as Dave Prentis of Unison, Paul Kenny of The GMB and Christine Blower of the NUT all proclaim their support. With Labour enjoying the input and funding of the Trade Unions, and UKIP making such inroads in to their core voter base that has been taken for granted for years, in my opinion it wouldn’t take Hercule Poirot to make some sort of connection between Hope Not Hate’s new found interest in UKIP and their paymasters from the ranks of the TUC and the political establishment.

Not content with making vague accusations against the party, HNH activists have now stooped to trying to ‘set up’ youth wing Young Independence’ members on Facebook, as explained below by the excellent ‘Nope Not Hope’ website

On the other hand, one of Hope Not Hate’s main activists and reporters is a gentleman by the name of Matthew Collins (pictured above). Collins is a former member of the BNP and National Front who has boasted of how many members of the Asian community he used to rough up. But again, of course, joining the establishment (In this case the ‘anti-fascist left’) absolves you of all crimes and allows you to take the moral high ground, even if you are still a thug – Just of a different cloth.

The smell of fear

With the EU elections and a large swathe of council elections due this year, followed by a general election in 2015, the continuing popularity of UKIP is unnerving the old tired parties in England and their overlords in Brussels.

This is just the start of a concerted ‘dirty tricks’ campaign as career politicians and bureaucrats try to cling desperately to their positions of power and privilege, consumed by a fear of change and real choice for the electorate.

I fully expect further ‘revelations’ and ‘scandals’ as the count down to May continues – The party must stand firm and trust in the people to see through the lies and continue to back us. The alternative of more EU control and the continuing dynasty of Lib-Lab-Con politics is too awful to contemplate.

We are now at stage 3 of the Gandhi quote I started this piece with – Come election time, I pray that stage 4 prevails for all of the people of England.

I recently spent a couple of days on business in the wonderful ‘Granite City’ of Aberdeen on Scotland’s north east coast.

Due to the distances involved travelling from my home in Hillingdon, I took the newly instigated Virgin Little Red flight from Heathrow – It featured male cabin crew and a female pilot who put us skilfully down on the tarmac despite awful cross winds and the bane of all nervous flyers such as myself, turbulence.

During the approach, my mind flicked back to an event I was invited to in August by the IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs) regarding equality in the workplace. This meeting was triggered by proposed EU legislation (Since partially passed) demanding a 40% quota of women in non-executive positions in the boardroom of publicly listed companies by 2020.

Amongst the speakers were entrepreneur Jo Fairley (Who founded the Green & Blacks chocolate brand), Dr Clare Gerada (Chairman of the Royal College of GP’s) and the IEA’s own Professor Ruth Lea. Also in attendance and giving his own view on the legislation was Godfrey Bloom MEP, who sits on the EU’s Women’s equality committee.

The consensus at the end of the event was that people should be in their position and/or promoted on the basis of ability rather than gender – A position I agree with, especially after the skilful landing in adverse conditions I experienced by Captain McDonald!

Herein lies the rub – In the world of aviation, what percentage of pilots are male vs female? I would wager that the men outweigh the women by a significant amount.

Now look at what could happen if a gender quota system were introduced. Being a nervous flyer, I am told that my captain for the flight is a woman. Is she there because a certain amount of pilots have to be of a certain gender, or because she is the best pilot available for the job? More to the point, if she IS the best person to fly the plane, is it in the back of her mind (Thus undermining her confidence) that she only got the job because of the quota? Will her male counterparts respect her for her ability, or will they have that little doubt in the back of their mind that she got the job because she is a woman?

Now apply that to the legislation in the boardroom – The same applies to the ladies here, who will be undermined by the quota and it could also hit the companies shares rating as investors may look at a bad decision and attribute it to a sub-standard board member.

Allow ability to shine through opportunity

My UKIP colleague, Janice Atkinson (left), recently wrote about the same event and has pointed out that the only way gender imbalances will be rectified is through education – How can women prosper in certain areas of industry when our system puts so many more young men forward for degree courses in physics and maths than young women?

Likewise, there are huge gender imbalances the other way in areas such as primary school teaching and nursing where the educational system almost pigeonholes these positions for the girls – My experience of this in the schools system with my step children has not been great, with headstrong young men lacking male role models alongside respected women teachers as I had the benefit of whilst growing up.

Gender quotas in Politics

Nowhere can the absurdity of gender quotas be seen to greater effect than in the world of our political elites. The Labour party are quite open about promoting a certain amount of people to ‘balance’ their front benches on both gender and racial lines, whilst the Tories are pushing for a 25% representation of women on the boards of FTSE100 companies by 2015 in line with proposals from The Davies Report – Despite a large increase in the numbers of women on boards anyway by dint of their ability. (Source – Conservative party website)

In UKIP, we adopt a completely opposite attitude – Our MEP candidates, after carrying out an assessment and screening process, were put up to our members for selection. The result? – A balanced list where our candidates, both male and female, have earned their position by their ability and the votes of their peers, as it should be.

Surprise, surprise – We have lead candidates in both the West Midlands (Jill Seymour) and Yorkshire and N Lincs (Jane Collins) who are women, with an impressive array of talent across the country such as Margot Parker, Diane James, Dr Julia Reid, Louise Bours and Janice Atkinson herself all well up the candidate lists and with realistic chances of the public electing them to the post of MEP. All are there on merit and are recognised by their colleagues for what they are – Dedicated campaigners who will put our country first in the Brussels bearpit without flinching.

Could you say the same about a candidate who may or may not be there as part of a ‘quota’? I think that conclusively proves the point.